Digital Lifescapes

The Strategy Analytics ProductTRAX program released its Q3 list of top selling consumer handsets in the U.S. market. Motorola, with its RAZR and KRZR, and LG, collectively accounted for seven of the top best selling consumer handsets. "Overall the average retail price paid for these top ten handsets was 19 percent higher than the market average; and we continue to see strong upgrade dynamics continue to supplement U.S. market growth," stated Barry Gilbert, Vice President of the ProductTRAX services at Strategy Analytics. "Motorola, however, despite selling four of the top ten models in Q3, realized an ASP of only $80, nearly 40 percent lower than the group average." "3G devices accounted for 55 percent of these top selling device volumes. That share will continue to grow during Q4," states Chris Ambrosio, a Director in the Wireless Practice at Strategy Analytics. "While the iPhone gets the headlines, the Sync from Samsung and the Chocolate from LG qui...

Nielsen Online reported that online shopping's primary appeal is the convenience it offers. In an online survey, out of nearly 1,000 respondents, 81 percent indicated that the ability to shop anytime during the day was why they chose to shop online during the holiday season. Saving time was the next most popular reason to shop online, with 77 percent of respondents, followed by the ability to comparison shop and find things easily, with 61 percent and 56 percent, respectively. Only a minority of respondents, 46 percent, listed low prices as a reason to shop online rather than in-store. Even fewer respondents, 24 percent, cited low shipping costs. "Coming into the holiday season, retailers are keenly focused on promotions, which certainly have the ability to move the needle in the short term," said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry solutions analytics, Nielsen Online. "In the long run, however, convenience keeps people coming back to the Internet during the holiday...

In-Stat and Wainhouse Research have combined their high-tech market research and data to create the first comprehensive unified communications products and services forecasts. As the worldwide supply chain for labor, goods, and services has been flattened, accelerated, and globally dispersed, companies of all types and sizes are acknowledging the competitive need to streamline the flow of knowledge and information worker expertise throughout the organization. Unified communications provide a framework for doing so. A unified communications system includes elements of presence, instant messaging, IP telephony, audio conferencing, web conferencing or data collaboration, unified messaging (a common message store for voicemail, email, and faxes), mobility, and/or video conferencing -- all accessible through a single client interface or within an embedded application interface. In-Stat and Wainhouse Research market study found the following: - Many of the largest vendor corporations in the ...

IP Networks deployed by fixed and mobile operators will lead to mainstream Voice over IP and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) services, driven by the increasing popularity of smart devices such as PDAs and smartphones. ABI Research principal analyst Ian Cox explains, "New affordable price points and ease of use will allow consumers to benefit from SIP services such as instant messaging, video sharing, and conferencing, which will join VoIP as it takes over from circuit-switched voice." Cox adds, "We have seen the start of a revolution, as mobile handsets become the product of choice not just for voice and simple text messaging, but also for any task that one can perform on a personal computer. And as networks are replaced by flat architecture all-IP with SIP application servers in the core, all forms of communications become possible. SIP services will develop into the norm after 2010 and rapidly begin to dominate the world's telecom markets. By 2012, almost half of...

Global telecommunications industry services revenue will reach $1.7 trillion by the close of 2008, with continued strong growth in wireless leading the way, according to a market analysis report from Insight Research Corporation. According to the new industry market study, overall telecommunications services revenues are expected to grow at a compounded rate of nearly 10.3 percent over the next few years, reaching $2.7 trillion by 2013. Wireless makes the strongest showing across all sectors while wireline follows a distant second. Nearly all of the growth in both sectors is expected to occur in broadband services, with wireless broadband service revenues expected to grow at a compounded rate of more than 70 percent over the forecast period, while wireline broadband services grow at under 10 percent over the same forecast horizon. The "2008 Industry Review, an Anthology of Market Facts and Forecasts" states that in the growth environment set off by the rush to meet subscriber...

New research by Screen Digest reveals how the European TV-based video-on-demand (VoD) and pay-per-view (PPV) markets will develop over the next five years and what the industry is worth today. From a low penetration of just under eight percent today, Screen Digest predicts that by 2011 over 20 percent of Western European households will have true VoD, a 30 percent growth on current levels. This growth will generate increased revenues, giving the VoD and PPV markets a value of 3 billion Euros by the end of 2011. Key markets include Belgium, the Netherlands and France, where cable operators have launched their own video-on-demand services. While the big-five European markets will continue to take the lion's share of on-demand revenues, other countries are beginning to catch up. As more Nordic companies deploy VoD services, the Scandinavian countries are beginning to show increasing on-demand average revenue per unit (ARPUs). The expansion of the rest of Europe's revenues is also ...

Fueled by market drivers, such as inexpensive flash-based players, growing broadband penetration, and the increasing availability of affordable music and video online, the market for portable media equipment will see strong growth in Japan over the next several years, according to In-Stat. Music-enabled cell phones, however, may cut into this evolving market, the high-tech market research firm says. The latest assessment assumes that the Japanese mobile phone service provider marketing efforts can continue to effectively compete with the consumer electronics companies. "While video capable, dedicated PMP/MP3 players seem safe from multimedia cell phone competition, there is a significant opportunity for cellular operators to capture those consumers who are considering audio-only MP3 players" says Alice Zhang, In-Stat analyst. The research entitled "Portable Music & Multimedia Market In Japan" covers the evolving market for all portable multimedia equipment. It p...

Video: EU Commissioner acts to force a level playing field.

The worldwide market for telecommunications infrastructure equipment will exceed $109.9 billion in 2011, increasing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2 percent. Network equipment sales to service providers (SP) performed strongly during the first half of 2007 driven by revenue growth from optical transport, broadband access, and routing and switching equipment. However, I believe that the untapped opportunty continues to be providing service delivery platform (SDP) value-added design services to the majority of SPs that need to evolve their legacy business models. "Consolidation of major networks and overall network expansion enabling increased wireless backhaul and video distribution to multiple screens will continue to spur service provider investments on new infrastructure for the foreseeable future," said David Emberley, research manager for Telecommunications Equipment at IDC. That said, perhaps designing compelling user experiences will become the f...

European expenditure on Consumer Electronics (CE) in 2007 is estimated at 75 billion Euros. High Definition will help revitalize CE's many product segments over the coming years, according to the market study by Understanding & Solutions. High definition broadcast subscriptions are still in their infancy and many consumers believe that they are watching in HD -- just because they own an "HD Ready" television. - UK: - France: - Italy: 1.2 percent of Sky Italia subscribers take HD. Lack of original HD content for broadcast provides an opportunity for Hi Def discs. European revenues from online video will make no real impact for at least 5 years, so Hi Def has an essential role to play in bolstering the declining DVD market. - Hi Def DVDs will account for 27 percent of the home video market value by 2011. - By 2011, online video will still only account for 6 percent. Despite much higher profit margins for online video, high definition disc sales will still derive double ...

Want to see the latest in digital broadcast television innovation? Go to Europe. Europe is leading the world in the fast-growing digital terrestrial platform (DTT), though other regions are gaining momentum, according to the latest study by In-Stat. With analog shutoffs (ASOs) approaching in North America and Western Europe, strong drivers for digital terrestrial set top boxes are on the horizon as consumers transition from analog to digital. While other regions are further behind the digital curve, actions are being taken to expand digital services; whether it is formally adopting a standard (e.g. Honduras and ATSC) or anticipating DTT launches (e.g. Brazil), digital is becoming a global change. In-Stat's latest market study found the following: - Total unit shipments of digital terrestrial set top boxes will eclipse 47 million in 2011. - U.S. converter boxes will hit the market in 2008. - Revenue will have a more subdued compound annual growth rate (18.2 percent) than unit sales ...

Accelerometers -- devices that sense motion -- have been with us for a long time, but only recently have they have been miniaturized as silicon-based devices. Consumer electronics (CE) makers who saw their hidden potential and built new products such as Nintendo’s Wii, Apple’s iPhone, and Activision’s “Guitar Hero” game around them have achieved huge market success by revolutionizing the user-interface. Manufacturers of the MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) accelerometers at the heart of these radical interfaces, firms such as Analog Devices (Wii), STMicroelectronics (iPhone), and Freescale Semiconductor, are reaping the rewards as well. ABI Research senior analyst Douglas McEuen says, "The MEMS accelerometer market will see strong, solid growth in the next five years, driven mainly by the technology's great potential for user interface transformation across multiple industries. We expect the market to show a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent to 2012.” Being firs...

While the iPhone is positioned as a consumer device, a recent IDC poll of U.S. professionals shopping for mobile devices suggests that this segment of the population is planning to use the device for both work and play. Nearly 70 percent of those polled who already own, or plan to purchase an iPhone in the next 12 months, consider the device to be for both personal and business use. This is despite the fact that the iPhone is considered by some IT experts as not well-suited to the corporate environment. Sixteen percent of respondents to this latest IDC poll plan to purchase an iPhone within the next 12 months, in addition to the 2 percent that already own one. Those polled intend to use the iPhone for various business tasks such as personal information management (contacts, calendar, etc.), corporate email, corporate Intranet, and customer relationship management (CRM). Whether respondents to this poll own an iPhone or not, two-thirds of them currently use one mobile device for both pe...

The worldwide mobile market change towards higher data-rate networks and associated handset availability has meant that by 2012, devices known as Super 3G will become the largest selling handset type, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. The latest edition of Informa's report entitled "Future Mobile Handsets" reveals that, while the rate of overall worldwide mobile handset growth will slow from 2008, super 3G devices will account for 35.8 of all handset sales in 2012, up from only 1.8 percent in 2007. Overall, the global handset market has more than doubled in 6 short years, reaching 974.7 million handset volume sales in 2006. This buoyant growth is expected to slow from 2007 onwards, with annual growth rates eventually dipping under 10 percent from 2008. Total handset sales are forecast to pass the 1 billion mark for the first time in 2007, to reach an unprecedented 1,105.5 million, according to Informa. Global volume sales are not about to go in decline, rather t...

The U.S. managed services market will grow at a compounded rate of 10 percent over the next five years as growth continues across all segments of the managed services value chain, says a new market study from Insight Research. The report notes that in today's sophisticated communications environment, full time managed service professionals are in the best position to assist enterprises to realize the full potential of IP networking. IP's vast array of capabilities greatly increases management complexity. The study notes that revenues associated with the managed services market will grow from $28.6 billion in 2007 to nearly $47 billion in 2012. Insight's newly-released market analysis report entitled "Managed Services in an IP World: New Opportunities for Wireless and Wired Networks 2007 - 2012," contends that carriers, service providers, equipment vendors, systems integrators, and specialist companies will all participate in the growth opportunities provided by th...

Video: Google's Sergey Brin intro to Android via a demo.

Video: Gartner analyst Sylvain Fabre dissects a troubled merger.

Within the next three years, more than 16 million U.S. TV households may be using their broadband service more than they use their TV sets today, according to an In-Stat market study. This is one of the key findings of an In-Stat survey of U.S. consumers about TV viewing, media, and online habits, the high-tech market research firm says. Survey respondents had a broadband connection, a TV set, and were 18 years of age or older. "Today's stable and profitable subscription TV services are facing new competition from online and mobile entertainment services, and from new, high-quality packaged goods, such as HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. The very nature of what consumers call entertainment is undergoing a profound change in which the ability to instantly share content with friends, family members, and those connected on social networks or buddy lists is creating micro user communities that replace traditional entertainment sources such as T...

Broadband service providers must learn the art and science of how to apply all the wonderful insights that reside within their datamart, and for very good reasons. As information becomes a more valuable asset in the effort to win more profitable consumer and business customers, subscriber profiles and associated information are the crown jewels for service providers (SPs) striving to succeed. According to new research from IDC, SPs will invest heavily in next-generation technologies to manage subscriber information, analyze behaviors, and ultimately deliver usable content to ravenous marketing executives and advertisers. "While critical to the success of SPs, subscriber management remains fragmented within the telecommunications infrastructure," said Elisabeth Rainge, director of IDC's Network Software research. "New services and usage patterns are expanding the scope of subscriber management, and the consolidation of information is creating a powerful, and lucrative...

Spending on word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing jumped 35.9 percent in 2006 to $981.0 million and is expected to top $1 billion in 2007, making it one of the fastest growing alternative media segments. Driving the growth is the continued consumer shift to alternative media and the marketer's need for increased brand engagement and ROI. These are some of the findings of the first in-depth analysis of the emerging word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing industry by PQ Media. PQ Media defines Word-of-Mouth (WoM) marketing as an alternative marketing strategy supported by research and technology that encourages consumers to dialogue about products and services. And for the first time in the long history of WoM marketing, an industry has arisen by integrating strategy, technology and measurement from its earliest stages of development. Brand marketers are responding, and have begun to increase their WoM media budgets, moving from test phase to implementations that support their integrated marketing cam...

Sales of video-enabled mobile phones hit close to $58 billion worldwide in 2006 and are forecast to more than double to nearly $125 billion by 2010, according to Infonetics Research. Explosive growth in mobile video subscribers is forecast as well, jumping from a few million in 2006 to 58.6 million in 2010, the Infonetics report says. Drivers for this strong growth include increasingly powerful and efficient phones and the analog broadcast signal switch-offs. "Despite some concerns around the business plan and subscriber take rates, major service providers continue to move forward with their mobile video network rollouts. They're taking advantage of spectrum availability, thanks to the switch-off of analog TV broadcasting networks, and the pressure to get services rolled out before next year's Summer Olympics in Beijing and the European Soccer Championship," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV at Infonetics. "In addition, governments are ve...

Smartphone Operating System-based phones will grow at more than a 30 percent compound annual growth rate for the next five years globally, taking an increasing share of the overall mobile phone market that is otherwise growing in single digits, according to an In-Stat market study. The unit volume of smartphones globally also exceeds the unit sales for laptop computers. Smartphones are also apparently filling the void in the market that remains from the continued PDA sales downturn. Users are experiencing significant value from their smartphones, the high-tech market research firm says. As a result they are downloading more applications and generating higher usage as measured by average revenue per user (ARPU) for wireless carriers. "Because of the value users are finding, organizations are slowly taking ownership of smartphones and data applications used for business purposes," says Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst. "Rather than having overcomplicated reimbursement plans, ...

According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of U.S. adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate. In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 178 million, a ten percent increase. Perhaps the really interesting story, however, is the reasons why the remaining people don't use the Internet. Maybe it's because they are part of the 58 percent of the adult population that admits to never reading another book after high school. In research among 2,062 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in July and October, 2007, Harris Interactive found that 79 percent of adults are now online. This is a steady rise over the past few years, from 77 percent in February/April 2006, 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in Spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults report...

The worldwide handheld PDA device market posted its fifteenth consecutive quarter of decline in shipments -- signaling either vendor intent to scale back production or exit from market entirely, or perhaps both. According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, vendors shipped 728,894 handheld devices in 3Q 2007, approximately 1.5 percent more than the previous quarter -- but 39.3 percent less from the same quarter a year ago. "The handheld device market has been under constant pressure, with mobile phones and converged mobile devices appropriating many of the handheld's salient attributes," says Ramon T. Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Device Technology and Trends team. "Handheld product portfolios have suffered as vendors have reallocated their production resources." However, the handheld device market may be down, but is not necessarily out. The handheld still has a loyal, if shrinking, following in developed economies, especially among enterpri...

Broadband market saturation is now very evident in several key markets that were previously in the hyper-growth category. European Broadband Service Providers (BSPs) added 4.2 million new subscriptions in Q2 2007, according to a report just published by Strategy Analytics. This growth represents a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter. "Europe witnessed some slight growth deceleration in the second quarter," says Taygan Govinden, Analyst in the Strategy Analytics Digital Consumer Practice, "This falls in line with our expectations, and is indicative of the increasing household broadband penetration." France Telecom continues to lead the European BSPs with a twelve percent market share; the company added an additional 345,000 subscriptions in the second quarter. Deutsche Telekom realized 52 percent year-over-year growth, having added 3 million new subscriptions since Q2 2006. UK operator Carphone Warehouse made its debut into the Top Ten BSP list this quarter,...

Video: STL Partners Chief Analyst discusses their latest research.

Predictions were that the winds of telecom sector change would continue to blow primarily in one direction. Google raised a finger into the air and felt the breeze gaining momentum. The result: the Android platform, and the Open Handset Alliance . While industry consolidation has wrought major changes in the U.S. telecommunications industry service provider segments, the wireless carriers stand out as clear winners, though all segments continue to add new subscribers, according to Insight Research. The wireless companies will be adding new subscribers at a rate nearly double the overall telecommunications subscriber growth rate. Cable companies are also expected to be big winners as they add telephone subscribers at a rate much faster than ILECs will add pay-TV customers to their networks. Moreover, the largest telephone companies are expected to continue seeing the gradual loss of subscribers, as wireless calling and cable telephone offers whittle away at their customer base. Accordin...

Broadband service providers are migrating to a Web 2.0 service creation environment that borrows heavily from frameworks and processes first developed in the IT sector. However, the pace and direction of that migration is likely to vary widely from company to company, according to Light Reading. The report entitled "SDPs & Service Components: The Web 2.0 Effect" analyzes service delivery platform (SDP) vendors that are providing the foundation level of software service components and examines their strategies for broadening the appeal of these components and associated reuse. "The concept of building systems out of reusable components has a long history in the IT industry, with Web 2.0 application development being the latest manifestation," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading's Services Software Insider and author of the report. "This concept is now being adopted by convergence-minded network operators that want to bridge tradit...

Mobile phone service providers and backhaul transport providers are expected to spend $8.2 billion on mobile first mile backhaul equipment in 2010, with Ethernet copper and fiber equipment growing the fastest, according to Infonetics Research. Based upon their latest market study, the top 3 drivers behind the rapidly increasing numbers of mobile backhaul base stations, cell sites, base stations per cell site, and required bandwidth include: - A fast-growing number of worldwide mobile subscribers, which is jumping from 2.6 billion in 2006 to 4.2 billion in 2010. - Heavy competition, which is forcing operators to upgrade their equipment and network capacity to improve and add new subscriber services. - An explosion in mobile data and video use, which requires providers to significantly increase the bandwidth they offer, from Kbps to a few Mbps to tens of Mbps. "Clearly, 2008 will be the year of adoption for IP/Ethernet backhaul, and 2009 will kick off the Ethernet mobile backhaul re...

Scarborough Research found that Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; and Seattle, Washington are the top markets for people who read or contribute to blogs. Fifteen percent of adults in Austin are bloggers , and they are 78 percent more likely than the national average to be in this consumer group. Fourteen percent of Portland adults are bloggers; followed by San Francisco and Seattle, with 13 percent of adults blogging in these cities. Nationally, eight percent of all U.S. consumers are bloggers. The top cities for bloggers have tech savvy and youth in common. Thirty-seven percent of Austin adults are between the ages of 18-34; they are 20 percent more likely than the national average to be within this age range. Adults in Austin and Portland are attracted to new technology. Austin adults are 17 percent more likely than adults nationally to be a part of a household that owns a DVR and 51 percent more likely to be a part of a household that owns a PDA. ...

The top eleven U.S. cable operators continue to grab share of the residential phone markets, a move that will cost the incumbent phone companies nearly eight billion dollars over the next five years, according to the latest market assessment from Insight Research. The incumbent phone companies are expected to lose more than three million residential phone lines to cable competitors by the close of 2007 alone, and nearly 17 million residential phone lines over the next five years. According to Insight's newly-released market analysis report entitled "Residential Telephony, 2007-2012," competition between phone companies and cable operators has accelerated in the last year, entering a highly competitive phase. While the telephone service offered by cable companies is relatively new to the market, a large number of customers -- more than ten million -- have already been enticed by the cost savings and highly attractive bundles of video, voice and data service. "The top...

Enterprises hold vast amounts of stored information -- typically available to their employees only on company premises, via PCs connected to the company's secure Intranet. According to a study by ABI Research, mobile line of business applications on the handset -- mobile business process solutions -- are liberating company-specific data for support of the mobile workforce. Over the next five years, application revenue in this service category will grow at a CAGR of over 102 percent. Two forces are driving development and availability of mobile line of business applications for the handset. Database vendors are supporting mobility strategies both internally and through the development of VAR communities; and businesses are requesting access and collection of company-relevant data on the mobile device. But these forces of supply and demand are only possible because of greatly improved handset capabilities and wireless broadband access. Field employees who need access to company-spec...

The legacy broadcast radio sector has seen better days, but there's hope on the horizon. The worldwide digital radio market is on a roll, with unit sales expected to increase more than three-fold from 2006 to 2011, according to the latest assessment from In-Stat. Recent developments include the availability of the new, enhanced Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)+ standard in the UK, an increase in the number of DAB trials throughout Europe and Asia, and the introduction of mobile devices with integrated DAB support, the high-tech market research firm says. "From a regional standpoint, DAB technology is close to mass-market appeal in the UK, and is the pervasive digital radio technology throughout Europe," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. "Satellite radio remains the leading platform for digital radio in the U.S., despite notable progress in HD Radio awareness." In-Stat's market study found the following: - The global market for digital radio will grow f...

Video: KPMG's Sean Collins talks about the world's emerging markets.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew at a healthy pace during the third quarter of 2007 with vendors shipping a total of 289.1 million handset units, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Worldwide shipments were up 9 percent from the previous quarter and 13.8 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Growth was driven by a combination of high-volume shipments of affordable handsets into emerging markets and high-end, feature-packed devices into mature markets. The leading vendors improved both revenues and profits, in some cases building on double-digit operating profit margins as they balance their product portfolios. "On a worldwide scale, the mobile phone market continued to post positive results in the third quarter, even as vendors struggle to balance revenue and profitability," said Ramon Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. On the one hand, emerging markets have required vendors to provide low-...

ABI Research latest assessment reveals an increasing gap in usage and spending patterns between business users and consumers who use their mobile phones for personal reasons only. Based on a survey of more than 1,200 wireless subscribers, results demonstrate that business users are a premium segment of the overall wireless market, not only spending much more on their monthly bills but also adopting advanced handsets and data or multimedia services at significantly higher rates than personal-only users. ABI Research's analysis shows that the average revenue per user (ARPU) among business users is 24 percent higher than among personal users. For mobile data services, the gap is even wider -- business users spend 80 percent more than personal users. And, business users talk a lot more -- they consume 69 percent more minutes of use (MOU) per month than personal users. Even among consumer-centric services like multimedia and entertainment applications, business usage is 78 percent highe...

ComScore released the results of a study using its Segment Metrix tool, which showed that heavy U.S. visitors to social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, luxury goods, consumer electronics and apparel. Heavy social networking visitors are defined as the top 20 percent of visitors based on time spent on social networking sites. More than 95 percent of heavy social networkers visited retail sites in August, compared to 80 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. These heavy social networkers exhibited a particularly high tendency to visit the more leisure-oriented retail categories, including those featuring entertainment (music, tickets, books and movies), fashion (apparel, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories), and retail technology (consumer electronics, computer software and hardware). "This analysis is consistent with the findings of a comScore study conducted last year, which showed that...

Subscribers in North America generate the highest monthly ARPU from mobile data services worldwide, at $8.90 in 2Q07, according to the September 2007 edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s World Cellular Data Metrics (WCDM). In contrast, subscribers in Western Europe generate on average only $7 per month. Strong uptake of unlimited use data packages, a near three-fold increase in 3G subscriptions year-on-year and rapid growth in SMS traffic in North America were the main reasons for the 43 percent rise in data ARPU in the region in 2Q07 compared with 2Q06. AT&T Mobility recorded 5 million WCDMA subscriptions at the end of June 2007 (compared with just 250,000 a year earlier), taking total 3G subscriptions (WCDMA and EVDO) to over 38 million. The total number of SMS sent in the region more than doubled year-on-year to 93.7 billion in 2Q07, equivalent to 120 per subscription per month. Total data revenues for North America amounted to $6.97 billion in 2Q07, a 66 percent year-on-ye...